Featuring music from the 1970s onwards, the show mixed dance, music, drama and media and was watched by an audience of around 300 family and friends - and the Lord Mayor of Westminster.

One of the highlights was Thrilla 2012, a reinvention of Michael Jackson’s iconic Thriller hit with steel pans, special lighting and skeleton costumes.

The show last Thursday and Friday also featured video clips of the children talking about their experiences, including the trip Paddington Arts Centre runs each year taking city children out to a farm, which for some is their first experience of the countryside.

The students, who range in age from 6 to 26, had spent the term working on the show.

Programme director Eldora Edwards, who has been directing the shows at the centre for 20 years, said: “The students do all the hard work and I do the easy bits putting it together.”

She added: “You get some kids who are so shy and by the end of term they’ve sung in front of an audience of 300, something they’d never thought they’d do. It’s really rewarding and fulfilling; it’s the process I enjoy, not just the performance.”